Returning from a long injury to his right wrist, world No.3 Carlos Alcaraz brilliantly passed his first test at the US Open by eliminating the American Tommy Paul (21st) in the round of 16 on Sunday.
In the women’s table, the double title holder Aryna Sabalenka (1st) also qualified for the quarter-finals, where Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova (6th) awaits her.
Alcaraz accelerates
If he had already made a good impression during the first three rounds, the returning Carlos Alcaraz had not yet faced a better ranked player than the Portuguese Jaime Faria (72nd). His round of 16 against Tommy Paul, ex-8th in the world who had already beaten the Spaniard twice, therefore served as a test.
The challenge was taken up without major difficulty by the seven-time winner of major tournaments, as inexhaustible in his movements as intractable in his winning shots to win 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.
On the Arthur-Ashe court, only the compression sleeve encircling Alcaraz’s right arm still betrayed the injury to his right wrist which took him away from the circuit between April and the end of August.
Clinical in the first set, where he broke at 5-4 even though he had not had the slightest opportunity since the start of the match, the former world No.1 never loosened his grip thereafter to sign his seventh victory in nine matches against Tommy Paul.
In the next round, Alcaraz will face the American Ben Shelton (9th), winner in mid-August of the Masters 1000 in Montreal, or the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (53rd), former world No.3 who is having the best run of his career in New York after several seasons without relief.
Shelton and Tsitsipas will succeed Alcaraz at the start of the evening on the Central, while the former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev (current 8th) began his round of 16 match against the American Frances Tiafoe (12th) in the middle of the afternoon on the Louis-Armstrong court. The winner will face the American Alex Michelsen (46th) or the Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry (32nd).
Sabalenka on AC, Noskova on wear
First poster of the day on Sunday on the Arthur-Ashe court, the eighth final between Aryna Sabalenka and American doubles specialist Taylor Townsend (96th in singles) was extremely disjointed, starting with five breaks in a row.
More authoritarian in key moments, Sabalenka won 6-4, 6-3. Trailing 3-1 in the second set, the Belarusian suddenly accelerated to win the last five games of the match.
Taylor Townsend “returned really well, she saw where I was going,” the world No.1 complimented her, satisfied with having gradually been able to bring more “variety” to the service. “Plus, it’s been a while since I last played with the roof closed, I had the impression that we both had a little trouble seeing the ball, that’s why my returns weren’t very good,” argued Sabalena.
At 28 years old, the boss of the circuit is obliged to win the tournament if she wants to keep her place as world No.1, coveted by Elena Rybakina (2nd), Jessica Pegula (3rd and opposed at the end of the evening to the 17th in the world Sorana Cirstea) and Coco Gauff (4th). Her opponent in the next round will be the Czech Linda Noskova, who won her first Grand Slam title in mid-July in London.
As in the third round where she wasted a match point in the second set before winning in three sets, the 6th in the world played overtime on Sunday against Marta Kostyuk (11th). While leading 7-5, 5-4, 40-15, the Czech failed to convert her first two opportunities to end the game and her Ukrainian opponent was quick to take her into a third set.
After many adventures – a break-break sequence in the middle of the round, three new match points missed – Noskova ended up winning on her sixth match point. “I am more than relieved,” breathed the winner in her post-match interview. “This match was so difficult mentally and physically,” insisted the woman who had already beaten Kostyuk in the Wimbledon semi-finals.
